Western Bulldogs come from behind to stun ladder leader Geelong

Western Bulldogs stunned league leader Geelong to surge back into finals contention, leaving the Cats to lick their wounds as coach Luke Beveridge declared his side could “win most” of their remaining games.

Aaron Naughton celebrates one of the Dogs’ five final-term goals. Pic: Getty Images

The AFL premiership favourites have got some mid-season wobbles.

Yes, flags aren’t won in July, but surely Geelong coach Chris Scott is starting to have a few concerns about his side after a second loss in three weeks.

The Cats had won eight games on the trot before the bye and 11 of their first 12 overall.

Since then there has been a win over Adelaide sandwiched by losses to Port Adelaide (11 points) and then Western Bulldogs (16 points).

The Cats remain the best defence in the competition and conceded just 71 points to the Bulldogs.

But the big worry is where has the scoring power of earlier in the season gone?

The much-heralded ‘Wolf Pack’ forward line produced just seven goals against the Bulldogs and eight majors against Port Adelaide a fortnight ago.

Saturday night’s loss was a 10-goal turnaround on the 44-point win Geelong scored over the Bulldogs in Round 9 just six games ago.

The Cats weren’t helped by their inaccuracy, and scored from each of their first six inside-50s which yielded just 2.4.

Gary Ablett was quiet as Geelong’s small forwards failed to hit the scoreboard. Pic: AAP

Late inclusion Gary Rohan had a chance to bring the margin back to 11 points with five minutes to go but missed a gettable shot on goal, which largely summed up Geelong’s night in front of the big sticks.

But it was more than that.

When the Bulldogs — lead by Marcus Bontempelli and Aaron Naughton — turned up the heat in the second half, Geelong couldn’t go with them.

The Cats were beaten by pace and are now off the pace with some work to do in the run home towards September.

The jubilant Bulldogs sing the song. Picture: Mark Stewart

GOALKICKING GROANS

Western Bulldogs fans have long been left groaning about their side’s poor goalkicking accuracy, but Geelong caught the wayward kicking bug as well.

The Cats were rated the most accurate scoring side in the competition entering Round 16, with the Bulldogs 17th.

But at the seven-minute mark of the second term, the two sides had combined for 4.12 — the Cats having 3.7 on the board and the Bulldogs 1.5.

That wasn’t even including two complete misses to that stage — one from Marcus Bontempelli and another from Tom Hawkins.

Goalkicking in the AFL is at an all-time low and under the roof at Marvel Stadium it is particularly hard to find an excuse for it.

Rhys Stanley and Tim English both had some nice moments. Picture: Mark Stewart

DANIEL DILEMMA

Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge had flagged during the week that injured defender Caleb Daniel would be a “big loss”.

That was evident, particularly in the first half, as the Bulldogs struggled to move the ball out of defence.

Daniel has been a star this season and had averaged 456 metres gained and 6.1 rebound 50s as the side’s key linkman coming out of the backline.

Without him, the Bulldogs looked lost at times and too often turned over the ball attempting to move it coming out of their back half.

Key defender Zaine Cordy finished with the most rebound 50s of anyone with five.

While it was less of an issue in the second half when the Bulldogs begun to dominate territory, they will no doubt spend some more time on those plans this week for Daniel is set to miss at least another two games with his hamstring.

Ed Richards and Sam Lloyd celebrate a third-quarter goal. Picture: Mark Stewart

Jordan Clark collects Jake Kolodjashnij. Picture: Mark Stewart

FRIENDLY FIRE

On a high after his Rising Star nomination last week, Geelong young gun Jordan Clark flew for a few marks in the opening half.

Unfortunately, his best one came at a cost.

With just a minute to go before halftime, Clark floated back from his regular position on the wing and took a strong contested mark at centre-half back.

However, in doing so Clark collected teammate Jake Kolodjashni in the head with his right knee.

Kolodjashni was taken down to the rooms where he failed concussion tests and did not return, leaving the Cats with only three men on the bench for the entire second half.

It hurt, with a number of Cats players struggling to run out the game in the final term.

Aaron Naughton kicked four but could have had more. Pic: Getty Images

WESTERN BULLDOGS 1.4 3.5 5.7 10.11 (71) def GEELONG 3.5 4.8 6.11 7.13 (55)

Goals: Western Bulldogs: A Naughton 4 S Lloyd 3 B Smith M Bontempelli T Dickson

Geelong: P Dangerfield 2 T Hawkins 2 G Rohan J Selwood T Kelly

Chris Cavanagh’s Best: Western Bulldogs: Bontempelli, Naughton, Macrae, Hunter, Dunkley, Lloyd

Geelong: Dangerfield, Stewart, Tuohy, Taylor, Stanley, Rohan

Umpires: MattStevic, Shane McInerney, Nick Brown

Official Crowd: 35,641 at Marvel Stadium

CHRIS CAVANAGH’S VOTES:

3 — Marcus Bontempelli (WB)

2 — Aaron Naughton (WB)

1 — Patrick Dangerfield (Geel)

CATS LOOKING FOR ESAVA LIFT: SCOTT

GEELONG expects key forward Esava Ratugolea to be available to return for next week’s clash with St Kilda after managing just seven goals in a disappointing loss to Western Bulldogs.

The Cats failed to make the most of their inside-50 entries early in the game before managing just 20 in the second half and were forced to “shuffle” the decks after losing key defender Jake Kolodjashni to concussion just before halftime.

Coach Chris Scott said he would have liked a second tall in the forward line alongside Tom Hawkins and expects to have that next week in the form of Ratugolea, who has missed the past three games with a hamstring injury.

“We’d prefer to have Ratogalea in the team. It looks as though he’ll be available next week which is a good sign for us,” Scott said.

“We were shuffling a little bit (after Kolodjashni went down). But I think historically the really good teams do find a way and we have enough flexibility in our team to cover those issues. But even if we had him we had 44 inside-50s. You’ve got to be really, really efficient with such a low number.”

Scott said the Cats were “beaten by a better team”, lamenting the wasted opportunities early against the Bulldogs after feeling his side was “well in control” during the first half.

The Cats were wound out from a $3.25 premiership favourite with TAB to $3.50 on the back of the loss last night but still sit well clear of second-favourite West Coast ($5).

— Chris Cavanagh

This Western Bulldogs fan went home happy. Picture: Mark Stewart

‘WE’RE NOT BAD’: BEVO BUOYED BY BUILDING BULLIES

A resurgent Western Bulldogs breathed new life into their 2019 campaign — and kept their finals hopes alive — after claiming a second consecutive top-eight scalp.

Coach Luke Beveridge couldn’t have been more proud of his players after their overcame a 10-point three-quarter-time deficit to overpower top of the table Geelong by 16 points at Marvel Stadium.

Following on from last week’s win over Port Adelaide, the Bulldogs stormed over the top of the wayward Cats, with Marcus Bontempelli, Lachie Hunter and Jack Macrae dominant in the midfield, while young gun forward Aaron Naughton (four goals) was outstanding in attack.

While Beveridge stopped short of declaring the Dogs — now at 7-8 — were finals — bound for the first time since their fabled 2016 premiership triumph, he insisted they were building and “not a bad side”.

“If we keep driving like we have been, there is no reason why we can’t win most of them (games in the back end of the season),” Beveridge said.

The Bulldogs have a clutch of winnable contests across the next five weeks — Melbourne, St Kilda, Fremantle (at Marvel Stadium), Brisbane (the Gabba) and Essendon — but Beveridge said he was taking nothing for granted.

“We have learnt a bit that you have got to be right on edge against everyone,” Beveridge said. “But in recent times everyone is asking questions of the team we have beaten, like they aren’t fronting up.

“We are not a bad side, as I have been saying.

“The competition, as you can tell through the ladder, (is even), they are all hard to win.

“(But) we are coming, we are emerging again … all I look at now is what is up ahead of us, and the possibilities of what that might be.”

He praised the work of Naughton for not only playing a significant role himself, but for helping bring other forwards into the game.

“He (Naughton) is very courageous and he has a competitive edge,” he said. “When you think he is still only 19, he is obviously a promising player.”

— Glenn McFarlane